When this method is used within a single sentence, an important word, or phrase, or clause that is necessary to complete the meaning is reserved to the very end. Such a sentence is called a periodic sentence; and is illustrated by the following example taken from the speech by Daniel O'Connell on the Irish Disturbance Bill: "If ever I doubted before of the success of our agitation for repeal, this bill, — this infamous bill, - the way in which it has been received by the House; the manner in which its opponents have been treated; the personalities to which they have been subjected; the yells with which one of them has this night been greeted, all these things dissipate my doubts, and tell me of its complete and early triumph." 1 Another illustration of this type of sentence may be found in Henry Clay's speech on America's Duty to Greece, when he said : "What appearance, sir, on the page of history, would a record like this make: 'In the month of January, in the year of our Lord and Saviour 1824, while all European Christendom beheld, with cold, unfeeling apathy, the unexampled wrongs and inexpressible misery of Christian Greece, a proposition was made in the Congress of the United States — almost the sole, the last, the greatest repository of human hope and of human freedom, the representatives of a nation capable of bringing into the field a million of bayonets while the freemen of that nation were spontaneously expressing its deep-toned feeling, its fervent prayer, for Grecian success; while the whole continent was rising, by one simultaneous motion, solemnly and anxiously supplicating and invoking the aid of heaven to spare Greece, and to invigorate 1 Select Orations (Macmillan), p. 100. her arms; while temples and senate-houses were all resounding with one burst of generous sympathy; in the year of our Lord and Saviour, - that Saviour alike of Christian Greece and of us, a proposition was offered in the American Congress to send a messenger to Greece, to inquire into her state and condition, with an expression of our good wishes and our sympathies, — and it was rejected!"1 And still another good illustration of this type of sentence may be found in the following quotation from Lord Macaulay's speech on the Reform Bill: "Now, therefore, while everything, at home and abroad forebodes ruin to those who persist in a hopeless struggle against the spirit of the age; now, while the crash of the proudest throne of the Continent is still resounding in our ears; now, while the roof of a British palace affords an ignominious shelter to the exiled heir of forty kings; now, while we see on every side ancient institutions subverted, and great societies dissolved; now, while the heart of England is still sound; now, while old feelings and old associations retain a power and a charm which may too soon pass away; now, in this your accepted time, now, in this your day of salvation, take counsel, not of prejudice, not of party spirit, not of the ignominious pride of a fatal consistency, but of history, of reason, of the ages which are past, of the signs of this most portentous time." 2 Emphasis by a Combination of Methods. In the illustrations of the different methods of emphasis given, pp. 258– 265, it will be noticed that these methods are not mutually exclusive, but that one may be used to supplement the others. 1 Select Orations (Macmillan), pp. 161–162. 2 Bradley, Orations and Arguments (Allyn & Bacon), p. 270. An excellent illustration of all these methods combined may be found in Burke's definition of his policy in the speech on Conciliation. This illustration is given below: 66 The proposition is peace. Not peace through the medium of war; not peace to be hunted through the labyrinth of intricate and endless negotiations; not peace to arise out of universal discord fomented, from principle, in all parts of the Empire; not peace to depend on the juridical determination of perplexing questions, or the precise marking of shadowy boundaries of a complex government. It is simple peace; sought in its natural course, and in its ordinary haunts. It is peace sought in the spirit of peace, and laid in principles purely pacific. I propose, by removing the ground of the difference, and by restoring the former unsuspecting confidence of the Colonies in the Mother Country, to give permanent satisfaction to your people; and (far from a scheme of ruling by discord) to reconcile them to each other in the same act and by the bond of the very same interest which reconciles them to British government." 1 For the pur Table of Means for Securing Conviction. pose of enabling the student to see at a glance all the different means for attaining conviction, the following table is inserted : I. Conviction A. To Make Clear the Validity of Proof 1. By Means of the Brief 2. By Means of Rhetorical Qualities (a) Unity (I') Unity in the Speech as a Whole 1 Bradley, Orations and Arguments, p. 5. (b) Coherence (I') Sequence (A') More Familiar to Less Familiar (B') Time (1) Large to Small (2) Near to Far (3′) Natural Progression from one Point of View to Another (C') Points from Definition (D') Points from Chain of Reasoning (II) Transitions (A') For Main Divisions (1) Partition (2') Summary (3') Summary and Partition (B') For Subordinate Parts (c) Emphasis (1) Nouns and Pronouns Referring Backwards (2′) Conjunctions and Adverbial Phrases (I') Position (II) Space (III) Striking Phraseology (IV') Iteration (V') Climax (VI) Suspense Summary of the Subject of Conviction. To create or destroy belief, a debater must employ both conviction and persuasion. The process of conviction, therefore, is one with which every debater should be familiar. He should know: First, that conviction is a process used in speech-making to make clear the validity of proof; second, that the clearness of proof should always be at its height in the brief; and third, that the clearness of the brief can be carried over into the speech only through observing the principles of unity, coherence, and emphasis. |